Thursday, August 28, 2014

Weekly Training Report - August 18th-24th

Monday: 4.5 miles (7:53)
In BJJ, we worked some submissions from guard using the opponent's lapel.  I liked the control of their posture once I got the lapel out.  Conditioning after class, getting ready for States.  It was tough, but hopefully it'll pay off.

Tuesday: No running
Competition class tonight, a little warmup and then live rolling with 5 or 6 hard matches.  It was hard, but fun!

Wednesday: 6.0 miles (7:55)

Thursday: 4.7 miles (7:41)

Friday: 5.1 miles (7:53)

Saturday: 7.2 miles (7:47)
We worked on some escapes from side control in jiu jitsu.  Something I can always use a lot of because when I go against the better guys in our gym, I always end up on the bottom in side control.

Sunday: 9.0 miles (8:04)

Weekly total: 36.5 miles
No running workouts this week, just some easy running.
Went to jiu jitsu 6 times this week.  In full preparations for the Jiu Jitsu State Championship next Saturday!

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Weekly Training Report - August 11th-17th

Monday: No running

Tuesday: No running

Wednesday:  4.5 miles (7:37)

Thursday: 7.0 miles (7:08)
3 miles easy, 4 miles faster than Marathon pace... around ~6:30.

Friday: 5.5 miles (7:43)

Saturday: 2.1 miles (7:52); 3.1 miles (5:50)
Ran the Celebration of Running 5K - Race Report

Sunday: 10.0 miles (7:35)

Weekly total: 32.2 miles
I ran a marathon Tempo run this week.  I'd like to do that at least once a week.  I want 6:40 to feel pretty easy going into my next marathon.  The 5K race went better than expected, I also want to throw in an interval session once a week.

Went to Jiu Jitsu 4 time this week, Monday - Thursday.  I didn't write down what we did, so I already forgot it.  Dammit!

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Celebration of Running Race Report

Yesterday was the start of the TrackShack race series that starts off with the Celebration of Running 5K near the Florida Hospital and the Orlando Science Center.  We ran right by the TrackShack store, and the area keeps getting nicer to run around with the "Mills 50" rebranding of the area.



I didn't really know what to expect for this race.  My training has been exceptionally lousy lately, virtually no speed workouts and much lower mileage than what I wanted for the summer.  I don't really know what has been going on with my training.  I haven't been injured or sick.  I just haven't had the drive or the desire to really run a lot.  I blame a lot of it on the heat and the humidity and the abundance of thunderstorms, but at some point, I just need to get out and run more.  Especially if I want to have a good performance at the Space Coast marathon at the end of November.



Maybe running some races again will get my competitive juices flowing and I'll run more miles and more workouts throughout the week.

So, as far as the race today, I was just hoping to break 19 minutes.  Actually, that was the worst I wanted to do.  I was going to go out and try to run around 6 minute miles and see how that felt and then adjust from there.  That would put me around 18:30-18:40.  Last year, I ran 18:20.

After some words from the TrackShack owners, John and Betsy, about this being the 37th year of business for TrackShack and 22 years of the Celebration of Running 5K (Wow!), the national anthem was played and we lined up for the start.

The start heads south down Alden road for the first half mile, and it has a pretty good drop in elevation.  So, the start was pretty quick, which was nice, but the bad part is the finish comes back through Alden.  That hill doesn't seem like much right now, but it'll probably suck real bad at mile 3.

I started out the first 1/4 mile at 5:30 pace, way too fast!  That damn downhill...



I got myself under control and went through the first mile at 5:50.  I felt pretty good at this point, but the heat was already getting to me.  I just wanted to be done at this point, before I felt like death.

We passed the Track Shack store with a DJ out front and then ended up on a trail for a bit.  Then we hit the 2 mile marker.  I went through the marker at 11:50, which was a 6 minute mile.  My garmin gave my split as 5:58.  Either way, I was slowing down too much.

I really didn't know how much more I had in me.  We got off the trail and went through a water station.  I think this was around 1/4 mile into the last mile and I was seriously considering walking at this point.  I think the way I pushed through this point was some weird reasoning that I would be on the course longer if I started walking, so I should just keep running and try to push the pace a bit.


So, that's what I did.  I focused on some people ahead of me and just started to try to reel them in.  And, it was working.  I was passing people!  We turned right onto Alden and I could see the 3 mile marker off in the distance at the top of the hill.  I just focused on not slowing down up the hill.  I made it up the hill, one more right turn and there was the finish!  I finished strong and it was over!  Thank God!

My time was 18:12, and my last mile was 5:46!  I finished 21st overall and 4th in my age group.  I'm pretty happy with my overall time.  It's faster than my race last year.  But, I'm really ecstatic about having such a negative split on my last mile.  Even with my pretty sorry training, I haven't lost much fitness since my last 5K way back on February 15th.  The weather was 20 degrees colder for that run, so considering the heat, I think these two performances are pretty similar.

Below is my pace graph from Smashrun, the shaded part is my fastest mile of the run at 5:41.  Here's my smashrun entry: http://smashrun.com/woodardb/run/2014/8



Hopefully, this race will spur me on to better training.  Once again, Track Shack did an outstanding job with the race.  As they always do.  I'm looking forward to the next race in the series in September.  And, I'll be back next year to run this race again.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Weekly Training Report - August 4th-10th

Monday: 6.1 miles (7:42)
We worked on some spider guard setup and sweeps today.  Everyone tells me with my length, that this should be my go to guard.  And, I agree with them, but man I just really suck at it.  There's too many moving pieces, I need a lot more reps before I think I'll feel comfortable playing spider guard.

Tuesday: 4.1 miles (7:28)

Wednesday:  No running

Thursday: 4.5 miles (7:42)

Friday: 6.4 miles (7:30)
We did some omoplata setups in Nogi today.  I never really thought of going for an omoplata without the gi, because it seems like it would be too hard to hold without grips.  But, the setup we used to trap the arm and hug under our leg was really pretty cool.

Saturday: 7.2 miles (7:44)

Sunday: 4.2 miles (7:52)

Weekly total: 32.5 miles
No workouts in my runs this week.  Next Saturday is the Celebration of Running 5K by Trackshack.  I think I'm going to do awful, but I'm looking forward to racing for the first time in a long time.

I went to Jiu Jitsu 6 times, Monday through Friday (I went twice on Tuesday).  And I signed up for the Florida BJJ State Championships in Coral Springs.




This was my first ever BJJ competition last year, and I'm looking forward to competing again this year.  This year, I'll be competing as a blue belt.  I feel butterflies in my stomach just writing about it!

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Weekly Training Report - July 28th-August 3rd

Monday: No running

Tuesday: 5.2 miles (7:58)

Wednesday: 5.6 miles (6:50)
Tempo run, did 24 mins at T pace ~6:18.

Thursday: 4.7 miles (7:56)

Friday: 3.8 miles (8:02)

Saturday: 3.2 miles (7:30)
Ran 2 x 4 min intervals, 6:45 and 6:20.  With a 4 min break in between.  I wanted to do more, around 4 or 5 total.  But, there was a lof of lightning, so I turned around and hightailed it home.

In BJJ, we worked on guillotine defense at the Saturday class.  Jeremy York from Gracie Brandon stopped by, he competed at last year's ADCC, losing a decision to Ezra Lenon.  He's a cool guy, and it was cool to pick his brain about some of the things he does in guard.

Sunday: 9.3 miles (7:57)
Wanted to run further, but while I was running around UCF I saw lightning to the east and to the west.  I'm pretty tired of the weather dictating how far/when I run...

Weekly total: 31.7 miles
I felt a little more energetic on my runs this week, just frustrated with my low mileage.  Some of which is due to the weather, some is just because I'm not mentally there during my runs.  I've been back on a low carb diet for about a month now, so I finally feel transitioned to a low glycogen state.  It was a tough transition.

I went to Jiu Jitsu 6 times this week, Monday through Saturday.  We worked guillotine defense and opening the guard by standing.  I got some pointers from Donald about maintaining my posture in the guard, so I'm trying to really focus on that when I find myself in someone's guard.  I think it's helping.